I went out for dinner with my dh last night and yanked a big black hair out of his nostril (because romance, clearly, is dead). Had we been paparazzi fodder, this could have made an interesting shot especially as he would have been caught looking momentarily tortured.

I sincerely hope Nigella isn't being throttled or abused by her husband, either in private or public. I just wouldn't assume the worst from a few pap shots taken over the course of a few seconds.

Oh sure - when I get animated in conversation my hand always strays around my husband's THROAT leaving him visibly upset. CAn happen to anybody.

Look at the pictures, there are plants, there is a heater. He didn't think he would be snapped doing it - or and this is the really scary option - he didn't care. This is abuse. Why would anybody even want to make excuses for him.

So the options appear to be either the newspaper bought photos from someone who witnessed an assault taking place, or bought photos which appear to show this and printed the story to that effect, presumably hoping they wouldn't get sued until they'd wrung maximum publicity from the incident.

We certainly don't know which it is, but both options are in staggeringly poor taste and must be (at best) horribly upsetting for Nigella.

Agreed it is not a one off shot where he appears to be punchin here but is actually giving her the Heinrich manoeuvre.

It appears to be several incidences where he silences her by putting his hand over her mouth, and where he repeatedly squeezes her throat.

That us not even a flash of violence is it? That is someone confident enough to feel they can get away with it, to control someone they are supposed to love with violence and the threat of more violence.

how awful that he knows he can do this and all the papers will say is things like 'explosive relationship' 'tempestuous' and the like, and allude to the fact they've both been married before as though it's somehow relevant. This (if it's how it looks) is a violent crime, and domestic violence by definition. And to read MNers looking for excuses for him is a bit shit tbh.

Yeah because after Levison the papers are just queuing up to misrepresent multi-millionaires on the front pages of their papers and risk being sued

This man is being described as a violent abuser of his wife. If there was even the slightest risk that he was actually trying to retrieve an errant fish bone or grape from her wind pipe, or another innocent explantion, they would not run this because of the risk or libel action. I expect this is the tip of the iceberg and Fleet Street has been awash with rumours for ages and they have been followed waiting to capture it.